The inventive arrangements relate generally to the field of protecting film against illegal copying, and in particular, to a method for identification of the source of films illegally copied by camcorders.
Copyright infringement resulting from the piracy of motion picture films is a wide spread problem. Once a film distributor distributes prints of a motion picture film to exhibitors for theatrical exhibition, a certain degree of control over the product is lost. In the regular course of exhibiting the film, a customer in the theater may surreptitiously record the film using, e.g., a hand held camcorder. At a more sophisticated level, a person seeking to obtain an illegal copy of a film print may gain access to a theater projection booth in collusion with an employee of the exhibitor and make a copy of the film after hours in a relatively controlled environment. In such an environment, the audio from the projection equipment can be directly fed to the camcorder. A tripod can be used to ensure a clear and steady picture. As a result, an illicit copy can be made.
In 1982, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), together with the Kodak Corporation, developed a technology for uniquely identifying film prints. This technology is commonly known as Coded Anti-piracy (CAP) coding. The code is a series of faint dots in the picture that are added as the print is manufactured. Approximately one out of every hundred frames contains four tiny dots that have been added to the image. Generally, 11 CAP-coded frames are required to reconstitute the serial number of the movie print. Each unique configuration of dots corresponds to a print identifier.
The film prints are usually coded for each theater in which a film is distributed. If CAP coded films are re-used, for example in theaters specializing in the presentation of older films, the identification of a theater being used to make illegal film prints may become impossible. Thus, a new film print must be generated for each theater in which a film is to be shown. The generation of film prints is relatively expensive, however. Moreover, it is expensive and cumbersome to maintain a library of interpositives from which new film prints can be generated for subsequent re-releases of films. Thus, a method is needed for identifying a theater in which an illegal copy of a film is made, regardless of whether the film is CAP coded.